281 It's still too early to talk about the ending!
"Although I never expected to identify the traitors through this method from the beginning, using everyone writing 5 to ensure the total number of coins for this round stayed above the passing line... I just didn't expect…"
"Everyone tacitly chose to betray!"
Hachiman Hikigaya said with a blank expression.
But in his heart, he was quietly overjoyed.
Things were unfolding exactly as he had predicted.
His analysis was not wrong—there was more than one traitor.
There should have been a total of 25 coins, but only 14 were submitted. This means two people paid full tax, three were traitors, two didn't pay a single coin, and one person only submitted one coin. Why was Hachiman Hikigaya so sure? Because—he was one of the traitors.
Hikigaya Hachiman submitted not even a single coin!
Now he was completely certain: the traitors were Juraku Sachiko and Honebami Miroslava. And he had already deduced their method.
Sachiko Juraku gave all her coins to Miroslava Honebami, letting her act according to her own will. And Miroslava, concerned that the total coin count might not reach 40 in the end, reluctantly deposited four of Sachiko's coins into the tax box.
As for the remaining six—they went, as usual, into the private stash.
Yes, from the beginning, the game never stated that one couldn't hand over the rights to their coins to someone else. Binding and controlling another's will through tangible benefits…
'As expected of Sachiko Juraku. Even I would find such benefits hard to refuse.'
"It seems the number of traitors has increased—at least two, no, at least three people have deposited their coins into the private box," Sachiko Juraku said, arms crossed, her proud gaze sweeping harshly across everyone present. "Human nature really is fascinating."
Obami Rin shrugged helplessly. "I honestly deposited all five coins just like the instructions said. And yet, three people betrayed us. Honest people really do get screwed—how cruel."
At that moment, Honebami Miroslava offered her insight.
Her gloved hands formed a triangle shape in the air with her index fingers and thumbs: "The situation is clear. Let's call them traitors A, B, and C."
"A and B are cooperating. C is a disruptive, newly emerged traitor."
"To betray when traitors already exist is unwise. It reduces the total and increases the risk of everyone losing. But if it's in cooperation, that's another matter entirely."
"Betray when it's time to betray, pay taxes when it's time to pay—this way, the total taxes can be controlled to a suitable degree.
With multiple traitors already in play, further betrayal becomes nearly impossible.
For the traitors, this is basically a surefire strategy."
"The real question now is—how did the traitors do it?" Obami Rin asked.
"Ah—" Sachiko Juraku was already sitting on the desk of a row seat, her voluptuous figure supported entirely by her firm, springy butt.
"If it's cooperation, then there must be tacit understanding between them. Which brings us back to square one.
Since I know I didn't cooperate with Hikigaya Hachiman, the only possible ones left, as fellow clan members… would be you two, right~?"
"Obami and Honebami."
"As for the disruptor—Hikigaya and Manyuda, it might be one of you, but there's only one chance to vote out a traitor. We need to vote out the biggest leech."
"Huh? Juraku, what nonsense are you spouting? Do honest people deserve to be slandered like this?" Obami Rin shouted indignantly.
On the podium, Yomizuki rested her fists against her cheeks, swaying her head back and forth.
How delightful~ Everyone dancing around in discussion.
Listing all the possibilities is endless—two premeditated traitors and one disruptor—just arranging them like a math problem gives one a headache.
And now, they have to do psychological analysis, too.
What's needed now is a decision. Controlled by the sense of unfairness, they can only blame others.
Even Sachiko-chan isn't exempt.
This is society.
Let me observe your confusion just a little longer~
The third round of discussion passed in prolonged mutual suspicion, and soon Yomozuki had tabulated the tax coin total for Round 3.
"Fifteen coins in total." "So the traitors haven't backed down." "Now for distribution—everyone gets 6 coins."
The atmosphere grew heavy.
This sobering result weighed on the honest players.
Undoubtedly, at this rate, they would lose.
Obami Rin's face also darkened. What an absurd gamble.
All his skills were useless in this game of pure human nature, like punching cotton—completely ineffective.
But even now, it wasn't entirely hopeless.
Though the method he was about to take wasn't for his own victory—but to teach a lesson to the traitors hiding in the shadows.
"Damn bastards. Playing tricks in front of someone who lives by fraud?"
Just as he was cornered and ready to take his final action— Hikigaya Hachiman spoke first.
He clenched his fists, head bowed so his expression couldn't be seen.
His shoulders trembled slightly, as if struggling to contain his laughter. Suddenly, he threw his head up and burst out in loud, wild laughter: "UAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
That laughter echoed throughout the spacious auditorium, lingering endlessly.
Watching from afar, Yumeko's eyes sparkled as she muttered: "It's about time to wrap things up, Hachiman~ You've been planning this moment all along, haven't you? How cunning. Competing against Hachiman... would break anyone, for sure!"
Hikigaya's gaze had changed. From lazy, lifeless fish eyes to sharp, focused brilliance—so intense that even Miroslava couldn't look him in the eye.
"This despair, this risk… it's too addictive to resist."
"But if I'm the only one bearing the risk—that's just not fair."
"So I've decided—I'm done playing."
"Wait—eh?! Hikigaya-kun! You can't quit mid-game! Your submitted chips won't be returned!" Yomozuki hurriedly tried to stop him from the podium.
"I'm not quitting~ I'm saying—let's all walk the road to destruction together!"
"Traitors love to leech off us honest players? Thrive by feeding on our energy and effort? Not happening."
"If I can't win, then let's all explode together, traitors included!"
"If it were me, I'd slit my own artery, so the vampires have no blood to suck—let's all perish together! In this gamble, the equivalent would be: I, as an honest player, will not deposit a SINGLE COIN!"
"You should understand what I mean, Manyuda Kaede!"
Hikigaya's voice thundered like a great bell, shaking Manyuda out of his empty-eyed daze, rekindling the light of self-will.
Yeah. Even after losing the gamble, he'd lost interest in something that should've been right up his alley?
This gamble was a microcosm of Japan.
Manyuda Kaede, once the prime example of the righteous path, inheritor of the finance minister's mantle—the traitors in this game were exactly the type he had longed to punish!
He subconsciously adjusted his glasses. "Though this gamble has nothing to do with me... I'll go along with you this time, Hachiman. Next round, I won't deposit even one coin either."
"Vampires—let's die together!"
Grinning wide, he seemed to reclaim the confidence of a man walking the righteous path.
From afar, Sumeragi Itsuki stared in amazement.
This was the Kaede Manyuda she admired!
"I see. No matter who the traitors are—if three players don't pay taxes this round, the traitors will definitely lose."
Obami Rin chuckled, shaking his head.
He hadn't expected he and Hikigaya to think alike.
"Looks like I never earned your trust, Hikigaya, but that's fine. I'll go along too—won't deposit a single coin. Let's see the traitors do it themselves."
"Heh. Interesting. I'm in." Miroslava and Sachiko both nodded.
Yomozuki's lollipop dropped onto the table without her noticing.
Undoubtedly—this was a threat!
Unlike physical torture, a mental threat driven by interests can sometimes be even more effective.
"They can't trust each other anymore. Everyone's acting so well it's indistinguishable from truth—no one can clear suspicion. It's exactly because there's no trust that this coercive tactic works!"
"In a game devoid of trust, you can't expect cooperation. But—you can bet they won't want to lose what they already have!"
"To put yourself on the line—Hikigaya, impressive."
Soon, the fourth round's discussion ended. One by one, the five entered the coin room.
Moments later, the tax box was carried out again.
So in this unprecedented "0-coin declaration" round, how many coins are actually inside?
"Let's listen."
"Ooh~ sounds dense! Seems like quite a few—have the traitors finally held back this round?"
"Now, let's reveal the result!"
"A total of 25 coins!" Yomozuki Luna shouted joyfully. "Which means—everyone paid taxes. According to the rules, everyone gets 10 coins! What a wonderfully happy ending!"
Hikigaya Hachiman had both hands in his pockets, slightly leaning back, the corners of his lips curling up faintly.
"Ah~ an ending? Chairwoman Yomozuki, it's still a bit too early to talk about the ending."
"Because the two traitors among us haven't been revealed yet, have they?"
"Now—I'm going to drag them out."
282 Public Property Game · Curtain Call
"In a Public Property Game where mutual trust is necessary, there was never any trust to begin with."
"The ones who pretended not to know while manipulating the coins, the ones who ruined it for those of us temporarily participating, the names of the betrayers are—"
Hikigaya Hachiman raised his hand and pointed toward the only two female participants in the game: "Juraku Sachiko, and… Honebami Miroslava!"
"Huh?!"
At those words, not only did Yomozuki Runa, acting as the neutral dealer, freeze, but even the ever-observant Totobami looked stunned.
In her theory, the betrayal had always been a collaboration between Hikigaya and one of the girls.
Even Obami Rin looked in disbelief, glancing back and forth between the two women before speaking uncertainly, "You're saying it was them? That… doesn't seem realistic."
There was something Obami Rin didn't voice—he had always suspected a collusion between Hikigaya and Manyuda.
As for the mysterious betrayer from round three, he had thought it to be one of the two girls, yes.
"In this Public Property Game, there had to be some kind of collusion.
They avoided my tactics while not fearing the chain reaction of betrayal and even switched the coins to private funds... Without a partnership, that would've been impossible."
"Of course, if more people had participated in this game—say, the Ogatou sisters—then their borderline cheating telepathic connection would have made it impossible for anyone to identify the traitors."
"But since the participants were temporarily gathered, the betrayers had to rely on some kind of method to communicate."
"Well, that's obvious," Obami Rin said, spreading his hands. "But all communication was done in plain sight. There were no incomprehensible codes. Even the Honebami family's coded language—I know a bit of it. There's no way I wouldn't notice."
"Wait a second…"
Obami Rin's expression grew pensive, and his tone unconsciously weakened.
At that moment, Manyuda Kaede picked up the thought: "Unless… the betrayers communicated in a place where no one could observe. And there's only one such place in this whole gamble—"
"The coin storage room!"
Both of them spoke in unison.
"But there's still one issue—if the betrayers were Honebami and Juraku, then… their relationship doesn't seem like the kind where one would obey the other unconditionally."
Obami Rin voiced the crux of his doubt.
He didn't believe that the prideful Honebami would act under the command of someone like Juraku Sachiko, who exuded queen-like authority.
"You're right—she couldn't give her orders. But what if there was an absolute benefit?"
"All you'd need to do is leave your coins outside the box, leave a note, and hand it over to the next person entering the room. Give your coins entirely into the other person's hands.
That would essentially allow one person to control ten coins—whether to put them in public funds or private funds, it would all be at their discretion."
"That would give everyone else the illusion that the betrayers were tightly collaborating.
But in reality, there was no 'collaboration'—just a simple bond of interests."
"Even without trust, people can be manipulated by weighing benefits and losses... That kind of psychological manipulation suits the image I have of Juraku-senpai perfectly."
Hikigaya looked at Juraku Sachiko. Her expression remained proud and indifferent. "Wouldn't you agree, senpai~?"
"Heh~" Juraku Sachiko didn't deny it. "Not bad reasoning. But anyone sitting next to each other could've done the same thing.
Why not Manyuda and Obami, or Obami and you, or even you and me?"
"I don't deny that I was one of the betrayers either~"
Hikigaya shrugged and said something that shocked everyone: "The betrayer in the third round was me. But I only placed a single coin into the private fund that round. That's all."
"As for Manyuda, I don't believe someone like him would act as a traitor in this kind of righteous gamble."
"So, the situation is quite clear now."
"I see… You're good, Hikigaya Hachiman," Juraku Sachiko seemed to accept that she and Honebami Miroslava had been exposed as the traitors.
She didn't question Hikigaya's claim about only placing one coin into the private fund.
After all, she had handed all her coins to Miroslava.
And how many were eventually placed was entirely up to Miroslava's decision.
Honebami Miroslava looked at Hikigaya with wary eyes—because she alone knew the truth: she had only placed six coins into the private fund in the third round.
That meant Hikigaya had lied and placed all five of his own coins into the private fund.
What a sly man.
Still, she said nothing.
Now that their collusion had been exposed, she might as well accept the punishment due to a defeated conspirator.
Hikigaya continued, "Based on the seating order, Juraku went in first, followed by Honebami. So the actual executor was Miss Honebami."
"From this, we can deduce everyone's current coin count."
He walked up to the blackboard and, under Yomozuki Runa's expectant gaze, wrote down the projected coin totals:
[Juraku Sachiko: 35 coins] [Honebami Miroslava: 50 coins] [Hikigaya: 32 coins] [Obami Rin: 31 coins] [Manyuda Kaede: 30 coins]
He dusted off the chalk with a cheerful tone, "Since we don't know exactly what happened in rounds one and two, I assumed Honebami went all-in.
Obami might've stashed a few in the private fund, so there could be some minor discrepancy. But this should be more or less accurate."
"Honebami Miroslava with her 50 coins is far ahead of the rest~"
Hikigaya raised one finger: "So, I have a proposal: let's exile Honebami Miroslava!"
"She has the most coins. If she's exiled, everyone else's total can be brought above the pass mark. What do you think?"
"Agreed."
To everyone's surprise, Juraku Sachiko, her fellow conspirator, was the first to raise her hand without hesitation.
Yomozuki Runa gave a satisfied smile.
This was exactly the kind of flavor she wanted—even among traitors, there's no trust.
Since only one can be exiled, if one traitor controls too many coins, they must watch their back against being ratted out by the other.
This is a game of absolute suspicion!
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
Hikigaya and Manyuda followed suit.
Only Obami Rin remained motionless.
Yomozuki asked curiously, "Three votes are enough for exile, but… Obami, do you disagree because she's your kin?"
"It's not that." Obami Rin's face was cold as he stared directly at Hikigaya. "I just think… if it's between letting an outsider like Hikigaya win, I'd rather have Honebami win with the glory of a betrayer."
"There's one thing—Hikigaya Hachiman lied. In the third round, he placed all five of his coins into the private fund, not just one."
As someone from the same bloodline, Obami Rin was certain.
That greedy man would never place just one coin.
His goal was never some happy ending where everyone ties.
"But with three votes already cast, my vote won't change anything. In that case, I'll agree too."
"Yoshi—"
"Four votes in favor! Honebami Miroslava-sama, exiled!"
The words of judgment reached Miroslava's ears.
She accepted it calmly, without much reaction.
She only glanced coldly toward Juraku Sachiko.
"So this was all within your calculations?"
"Someone exposed our betrayal, but they chose to exile me instead of you~"
"Honebami Miroslava, you should understand—there's no such thing as a free lunch.
When I handed over my coins to you, it became a personal gamble between us."
"If you win, and no one exposes us, all my votes are yours. If you lose and our conspiracy is revealed, the one with the most coins—you—becomes the target."
"Looks like someone was smart enough to call us out after all~"
"AH…"
Honebami Miroslava moved quickly, pinning Juraku Sachiko against the wall by the throat before anyone could react.
"Angry? But anger won't solve anything."
"Don't get it twisted—I just acknowledge you as my co-conspirator in betrayal." Miroslava let go. "But I am displeased with your attitude."
"There's no point in saying anything more. Based on our original wager, the one who is exiled—you lost~ I'm looking forward to it, Miroslava—your disgraceful punishment."
Juraku Sachiko raised her hand, pried off the gloved hand on her neck, and without mercy grabbed and twisted at Miroslava's bust with her elegant but bony fingers.
Ding-ding-ding—
Yomozuki Runa rang the bell signaling the end of the game.
"With Honebami Miroslava exiled, her coins will be equally redistributed to the remaining players. As such, the four remaining players now all have over 40 coins. The fifth round concludes with all coins placed into the public fund."
"Now, announcing the rankings!"
Fifth place: Honebami Miroslava – Exiled, 0 coins Fourth place: Manyuda Kaede – 40 coins Tied Third: Juraku Sachiko & Obami Rin – 41 coins each And the flawless victor of the Public Property Game: Hikigaya Hachiman – 47 coins!
"According to the original wager: Hikigaya Hachiman receives 950 vote tokens." "Juraku Sachiko and Obami Rin each receive 75 vote tokens." "Manyuda Kaede receives 60 vote tokens." "That is all."